Constructor: Christina Iverson and Katie Hale
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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THEME:"Hold Your Doze"— familiar phrases become wacky phrases once they're written out as you might pronounce them if you had a cold, i.e. a stuffy nose ('doze'):
Theme answers:
This is a fine theme idea. Pretty sure I've seen some version of it before, but I've been doing puzzles for three+ decades, so that's not Terribly surprising. The title pretty much gives the game away, and I have to say I wasn't that thrilled by the title. It's not particularly evocative of anything, or even a good, or particularly funny, pun. Plus, the only time you'd speak this way is if you had a cold. Yes, if you hold your nose and talk, this is how you'd sound, but who does that? The stuffy nose / head cold angle is the one you want to go with here, and "Hold Your Doze" doesn't come near it. But this is arguing about the hood ornament on the car. The car itself—just fine. The best thing about the puzzle is how it sticks the landing—that is, how it saves the best, and themeiest, themer for last, hitting us with a double dose of "D" changes in "THAT'S A DOUGH BRAIDER," which is also perfectly clued with that reference to challah (110A: Tour guide's remark at the challah factory?). Another low-key but significant accomplishment of the theme answers is that none of them contain "M"s, which would've demanded a completely different sound change ("M" to "B"), if the theme was to remain consistent with the nose-holding pronunciation. You'd either have to have a bunch of "M"-to-"B" sound changes—make it part of the bit—or (as here) none at all. So the theme isn't all that complex, but there's nice attention to detail in the execution, with the deft avoidance of "M"s and the thoughtful placement of the Doziest (Double-D) answer in the final, exclamation-point position. Nice craftsmanship. The theme answers are varying degrees of funny. The last is the best, I think, but I also thought "DO AS I SAY, DOT AS I DO" was outlandish enough to be worth it, and "IT'S A HARD DOCK LIFE" was right on the money, on a literal level (not even terribly wacky). I also liked remembering "Annie" (or Jay-Z, if that's your primary frame of reference).
Bullets:
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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- "SHOULD THE DEED ARISE ..." (26A: "If that missing house title ever does show up...") ("should the need arise ...")
- WHAT ELSE IS DUE? (43A: Question from someone with a lot of outstanding debt?) ("what else is new?")
- DO AS I SAY DOT AS I DO (57A: Teacher's instruction in a class on pointillism?) ("do as I say, not as I do")
- IT'S A HARD DOCK LIFE (80A: Stevedore's complaint?) ("It's a Hard Knock Life" (the song from "Annie"))
- "USE YOUR DOODLE" (92A: "No need to find a professional illustrator!") ("use your noodle")
- "THAT'S A DOUGH BRAIDER" (110A: Tour guide's remark at the challah factory?) ("that's a no-brainer")
Bugsy is a 1991 American biographical crime drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by James Toback. The film stars Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Bebe Neuwirth, and Joe Mantegna. It is based on the life of American mobster Bugsy Siegel and his relationship with wife and starlet Virginia Hill.Bugsy was given a limited release by TriStar Pictures on December 13, 1991, followed by a theatrical wide release on December 20, 1991. It received generally positive reviews from critics. It received ten nominations at the 64th Academy Awards (including for Best Picture and Best Director) and won two: Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. (wikipedia)
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| [103A: NASA shorthand for a spacewalk] |
The theme is pretty thin, as Sundays go, so there's room for some nice longer fill, and with room to breathe, the grid in general tends to be pretty clean. There's something semi-hilarious about NOT PICTURED (34D: Caption for an absent student, say). Just the idea of people missing their club or team's yearbook photo ... shouldn't make me laugh, but it does. I'd've gone with "club" or "team member" in the clue, since an "absent student" is more of a classroom, less of a yearbook thing, but I guess the clue is technically correct. FONDANT hasn't been seen in the NYTXW since 1983 (!?!?!), which makes no sense at all (89D: Frosting alternative). Welcome back, basic cake decorating feature! Put it on a PEDESTAL! Really love the WHOOP WAZOO corner. Maybe not thrilled about ZOO crossing WAZOO ("WHOSE ZOO?""WA-ZOO!""WHOSE ZOO?""WA-ZOO!" (Cheerleaders and hype men, feel free to borrow that one, especially if you've got a gig at a zoo in Washington)). But it's hard to be mad at WHOOP WAZOO! Let's all get WHOOP WAZOO TATTOOS. It'll be cool.
What the hell is this IPADS scam? (7D: Giveaways in some common scams of the 2010s). Did they actually give the IPADS away, and if so, how is that a scam? Should "Giveaways" be in quotation marks? I'm not quite old enough to get targeted for these scams yet, but please check in on older people in your life because, speaking from unfortunately personal experience, you would (or might) be stunned at how many nakedly scammy scams work, and how easily people you've always known to be reasonable and careful can fall prey to them. Jaw-dropping. Alarming. Special place in hell-type stuff. Besides this alleged IPADS scam, I'd heard of everything else in the grid, I think, including POP OFF, though I'm not sure I could've defined it precisely. Also, pretty sure POP OFF also means "run your mouth without much thought." Looks like Google / Oxford Languages is defining it as "speak spontaneously and at length, typically angrily." But I've heard this newer "Perform very well" meaning too.
- 1A: End of the line? (BAIT)— a toughie, right off the bat. I needed BAI- before I saw it. My wife needed -AIT ("Oh, you knew BUGSY, did you?" Guilty).
- 36D: Official OKs (SAYSOS) — not a term that wants to be pluralized. At all.
- 65A: How one might punnily define "Saran" or "sari"? ("IT'S A WRAP") — I groaned, but I also don't hate the corniness. You're allowed some corniness. Mix it up! It's Sunday. Show me what you got, clue-wise!
- 101A: What "Eat" stands for in the mnemonic "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" (EAST) — what idiot needs a mnemonic for the basic cardinal directions? ROYGBIV, I get. My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos, LOL, not gonna remember that one, but I respect it. Every Good Boy Does Fine, sure. But "Never Eat Soggy Waffles?" How hard is it to remember North South EAST and West. And if it is hard, why didn't you just go with NEWS? Is the idea that "Never Eat Soggy Waffles" puts the directions in clockwise order? 54 years old and never heard of anyone needing a mnemonic for the directions. Crazy.
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